Armistice Day Centennial

One hundred years ago today in Europe and Africa, the guns fell silent and everybody went home to raise another generation of cannon fodder for Round Two.

Curious Cdn

Conservative

#2

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Nuclear weapons put an end to us repeating that cycle but only just.

Kreskin

#3

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

We will attend local ceremonies. *checks for rain*

Curious Cdn

Conservative

#4

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Kreskin

We will attend local ceremonies. *checks for rain*

Here's what Winston Churchill's grandson (who is also a British MP) had to say about that:

Nicholas Soames
@NSoames
They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Curious Cdn

Here's what Winston Churchill's grandson (who is also a British MP) had to say about that:

Nicholas Soames
@NSoames
They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry

I've heard many other presidents and prime ministsers failed to attend, too.

Last edited by Blackleaf; Nov 11th, 2018 at 08:15 AM..

Serryah

Free Thinker

+1 / -1

#6

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackleaf

I've heard many other presidents and prime ministsers failed to atttend, too.

You heard; okay, who was it?

The fact you are STILL okay with Trump's non-excuse says a lot though.

Blackleaf

+1

#7

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Serryah

You heard; okay, who was it?

The fact you are STILL okay with Trump's non-excuse says a lot though.

Theresa May wasn't there, either, and yet she's not been attacked by the press or Nicholas Soames.

Tecumsehsbones

+1

#8

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Curious Cdn

Nuclear weapons put an end to us repeating that cycle but only just.

Ultimately it was up to the Yanks, dragged reluctantly into both wars, to impose a little discipline.

Or, as our rednecks like to say "If y'all make me put down mah beer an' git up outta mah La-Z-Boy, some butts is gonna get whooped!"

Blackleaf

#9

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Tecumsehsbones

Ultimately it was up to the Yanks, dragged reluctantly into both wars, to impose a little discipline.
Or, as our rednecks like to say "If y'all make me put down mah beer an' git up outta mah La-Z-Boy, some butts is gonna get whooped!"

Now don't be a silly billy.

During WWI, American soldiers were so underequipped they had to borrow kit from the British and French.

Curious Cdn

Conservative

#10

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackleaf

Now don't be a silly billy.
During WWI, American soldiers were so underequipped they had to borrow kit from the British and French.

They were so tactically backward that Pershing had his troops making fixed-bayonet charges straight into indirect machingun fire right up to the end ... a tactic that the other allies had long since abandoned.

Blackleaf

#11

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Curious Cdn

They were so tactically backward that Pershing had his troops making fixed-bayonet charges straight into indirect machingun fire right up to the end ... a tactic that the other allies had long since abandoned.

He wanted to carry on the war after the armistice has been signed. He wanted to go all the way into Germany.

MHz

#12

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Tecumsehsbones

One hundred years ago today in Europe and Africa, the guns fell silent and everybody went home to raise another generation of cannon fodder for Round Two.

Nice summation, unfortunately. Things could be worse, you could have a European heritage.

Walter

#13

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackleaf

I've heard many other presidents and prime ministsers failed to attend, too.

Yeah, but ya gotta show hate for Trump whenever possible, even if you have to make up the circumstances.

pgs

Free Thinker

+1

#14

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Walter

Yeah, but ya gotta show hate for Trump whenever possible, even if you have to make up the circumstances.

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Precisely what ideals were they standing up for in the mis-named First World War, Mowich?

Perhaps the most ironic part of that war is that the countries who claimed they were fighting for the right of small countries to be free were the most active and voracious colonizers in Europe.

Little anecdote: as they were negotiating the Versailles Treaty, a young man from French Indochina requested an audience with President Wilson, intending to ask him to use his influence to press France to free his country. Wilson refused to see him.

His name was Ho Chi Minh.

Cliffy

Free Thinker

+1 / -1

#18

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

What have we learned from history? Nothing. War in an industry. It will always be thus. Old men sending young men to kill and die for their profit. Not a single Canadian or US soldier has died fighting for our freedom. They were all mercenaries of the military/industrial complex.

MHz

#19

Re: Armistice Day Centennial

Nov 11th, 2018

Quote: Originally Posted by Tecumsehsbones

Perhaps the most ironic part of that war is that the countries who claimed they were fighting for the right of small countries to be free were the most active and voracious colonizers in Europe.

Europe is still at it, China saw mimicking Europe as a lost cause and are on a different path. The EU is not pleased, sorry, the owners of the EU are not pleased.

Dr. Hubertus Strughold, who played an important role in space medicine by developing space suits and other life-support systems. In June 1948, he put a rhesus monkey named Albert in the pressurized nosecone of a V-2 rocket in a pressurized nose cone, the first step in the effort to send humans to space.

General Reinhard Gehlen, former head of Nazi intelligence operations against the Soviets, was hired by the US Army and later by the CIA to operate 600 ex-Nazi agents in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany. In 1948, CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter assumed control of the so-called Gehlen Organization.

In 1949, the CIA created the Office of Scientific Intelligence. Its first director, Dr. Willard Machle, traveled to Germany to set up a special program to interrogate Soviet spies. The CIA believed the Russians had developed mind-control programs and wanted to know how US spies would hold up against this capability if caught. He also aimed to explore the feasibility of creating a “Manchurian candidate” through behavioral modification. Thus, Operation Bluebird was born. Bluebird, later called MKULTRA, was a research activity experimenting in behavioral engineering of humans. The Nuremberg Code prohibits experimentation with humans without their consent. During this program, Dr. Frank Olson, a US Army biological weapons researcher, was given the drug LSD without his knowledge, leading to his death by leaping from a building. DCI Richard Helms ordered much of the documentation destroyed, and the circumstances of his demise remain controversial to this day.
Although she understandably questions the morality of the decision to hire Nazi SS scientists, Jacobsen balances her judgment with an understanding of the perceived threat of the Soviet Union under Stalin and the communists’ dialectical determination to prepare for total war with the West. The Soviets similarly captured and used German scientists for their own defense programs. That side of the story is not covered in this book.
Jacobsen provides insights on joint intelligence coordination and cooperation among US services and Allies; operational deconfliction; document and foreign materiel acquisition and exploitation; interrogation techniques; active tracking; production of foreign intelligence; surveillance and countersurveillance methods; and negotiating the sometimes conflicting objectives of the judiciary and the Intelligence Community (i.e., “hang them” vs. “hire them!”).